Prabhdeep Srawn hasn’t been heard from since parking his rental car on May 13 in the village of Charlotte Pass in Kosciuszko National Park in Australia

Prabhdeep Srawn, of Brampton, has gone missing during a hike in Australia's Snowy Mountains.

By:Sahar FatimaStaff Reporter, Published on Tue May 21 2013

Family and friends of a Brampton man who went missing last week while hiking in Australia’s Snowy Mountains filled a Mississauga temple Tuesday night to pray for his safe return.

Prabhdeep Srawn hasn’t been heard from since parking his rental car on May 13 in the village of Charlotte Pass in Kosciuszko National Park in New South Wales.

The Sikh prayer service was open to anyone in or outside of the Sikh community, relative Tej Sahota said from Cleveland, Ohio.

For the last two years, 25-year-old Srawn has been a law student at Bond University in Brisbane.

His father, mother and cousin arrived in Australia on Tuesday to aid in the search being conducted by Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service officers, police and State Emergency Service volunteers.

Sahota said he believes Srawn got lost on his hike when a snowstorm unexpectedly hit the region. He said the police in Australia didn’t find any evidence of foul play.

The family is staying optimistic, Sahota said, and hopes Srawn is sitting tight somewhere waiting for the storm to pass, but he thinks more could be done to find the Brampton man.

“The Australians don’t have enough manpower on the ground,” he said.

Along with the rest of Srawn’s family and friends, Sahota has been reaching out to Canadian Members of Parliament through social media to urge them to pressure the Australian government into deploying its military to search for Srawn.

Currently, Sahota said only a small team is searching the area for Srawn.

“Twenty people covering this huge area isn’t going to be enough,” he said.

If the military becomes involved, he said he hopes that number could go up to 100 or more.

Canadian consular officials in Sydney have been in contact with the family to offer their assistance.

Srawn has had extensive survival training as a Canadian Forces reservist and former Australian military reservist, Sahota said.

“He’s been through cold-weather training where he would have had a high survival instinct,” he said.

Srawn is also considered an avid bushwalker, a term used to describe a wilderness hiker in Australia and has also hiked in mountainous regions of New Zealand.

“We believe with that ... his chances of survival are a bit higher than a normal hiker.”

Sahota, who is married to Srawn’s cousin and has known him for about nine years, said Srawn is very focused.

“He’s very meticulous. He’s an army man,” Sahota said. “(He) sticks to the routes, sticks to the plans.”

“He’s not a kid worth giving up on,” he said.

The search for Srawn only kicked into high gear on Saturday, said Sahota, who expressed hope that search and rescue teams in Australia wouldn’t easily give up because of harsh weather.

The hiking route Srawn is believed to have taken is considered an easy walk in good weather.

But it can quickly become very treacherous in bad weather, which was the case Monday, when snow prevented rescuers from conducting a ground search.

Temperatures in the area have hovered close to zero for the last week, with the first snow of the season covering trails in recent days.

Forecasters were predicting nearly 2 cm of snow and temperatures falling to -3C by early Wednesday.

Family members and friends have posted messages on social media websites hoping to glean any information they can about Srawn’s whereabouts.

By late Tuesday, nearly 1,900 people had joined a Facebook page where the latest information is being posted. A couple of notes on the page, however, urged friends not to call police in Australia, who have been inundated with inquiries for the latest word on the search.

With files from The Canadian Press

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